Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (24 page)

329.
What
: why;
projecting:
scheming; devising.

330.
determined us
: settled our course. Cp. 11.227.

334.
stripes
: marks left by a whip.

337.
reluctance
: resistance, opposition.

338–40.
how … feel?:
“how to mitigate God’s victory and pleasure in tormenting us?” These challenging lines initiate the figure of God as a reaper seeking to maximize his yield (cp. 4.983) and cap the debate’s running concern with the balance of
suffering
and
doing
(see 199n).

349–51.
To be … above:
“Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps. 8.5).

349.
like to us
: a comparison indicative of the fallen angels’ egocentrism, or antitheo-centrism. Resemblance between humans and angels derives from their reflection of the same creator (cp. 3.100–128, 4.567).

352–53.
Fowler observes that the precedent for God’s Heaven-shaking oath is both biblical and classical. See Isa. 13.12–13 and especially Heb. 6.17 (a crucial verse for
Lycidas
also); Homer,
Il
. 1.528–30, and Vergil,
Aen
. 9.104–6.

355.
mold
: form. Cp. line 139. The sense “constitutive substance” (in humanity’s case, earth) is secondary here because
substance
follows. See Rumrich 1987, 53–69.

357.
attempted
: attacked or tempted. The options are elaborated through line 376.

367.
puny
: from the French
puis né
, later born.

368.
God
: “The first time in
PL
that any devil has spoken the name” (Leonard).

369–70.
May … works:
“And the Lord said, I will destroy man … for it repenteth me that I have made them” (Gen. 6.7). Following the Calvinist interpretive practice known as “accommodation,” the Geneva Bible explains that “God doeth never repent, but he speaketh after our capacity.” Milton refuses to go along: “God would [not] have said anything … about himself unless he intended that it should be a part of our conception of him.… Let us believe that he did repent” (CD 1.2 in
MLM
1147).

374.
Hurled headlong
: repeats 1.45, the account of the rebel angels’ expulsion. Beëlzebub assumes that God will be consistent in punishing rebellion; hence
partake
(share)
with us
.

375.
original
: 1667 reads “originals.” The meaning includes “parentage” but also the prelapsarian state of bliss (see 10.731–42). Cp.
RCG:
“run questing up as high as Adam to fetch their original” (Yale 1:762).

377.
to sit in darkness here
: “Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; Because they rebelled against the words of God and condemned the counsel of the most High” (Ps. 107.10–11).

379–80.
first devised/By Satan:
See 1.650–56.

383.
one root
: Adam and Eve, the genealogical root of humanity.

387.
States
: representatives, dignitaries.

391.
Synod
: meeting, assembly (usually of clergy or church elders); cp. 6.156, 11.67.

404.
tempt
: make trial of, test.

405.
abyss
: Greek for “bottomless”; translates “the deep” in the Septuagint.

406.
palpable obscure
: tangible dark. Cp. the “darkness which may be felt” inflicted by God on Egypt (Exod. 10.21) and the threat of “thick and palpable clouds of darkness” invoked in the prefatory epistle to the
AV
.

407.
uncouth
: unknown, strange, unpleasant.

409.
abrupt
: chasm.

410.
happy isle
: the universe of this world, hung in the sea of chaos (ll. 1011, 1051). The phrasing recalls the Islands of the Blessed in Greek mythology.

413.
had
: would have.

415.
Choice in our suffrage
: judgment in arriving at a consensus.

418.
suspense
: attentive, in suspense, as is appropriate for personified
expectation
.

430–66.
Cp. Satan’s corresponding speech at
PR
1.44–105.

432–33.
long … light:
Satan echoes the warning of Vergil’s Sibyl to Aeneas before his trip to the underworld (
Aen
. 6.126–29; cp. 81n, 3.20–21).

434.
convex
: hemisphere or domelike vault, seen from the outside.

435.
Outrageous to devour
: fierce enough to destroy rapidly and completely.

436.
adamant
: from the Greek for “unbreakable.”

438.
void profound
: translates Lucretius’
inane profundum
(
On the Nature of Things
1.1108).

439.
unessential
: lacking essence; without entity. Cp. “unoriginal” (10.477), “unsubstantial” (
PR
4.399). Satan proceeds to revisit Belial’s fear (ll. 149–51), as he will again when he returns to Hell (10.476–77).

441.
abortive
: threatening
utter loss of being
(as at l. 440), as if one had never been born. The sense “preventive” may also apply because, by swallowing Satan, the preexistent womb of chaos would end his mission before it begins; see lines 932–38.

443.
remains
: awaits.

444.
Beginning with Edition 4 (1688), editors often supply a question mark after
escape
. The sentence may be construed as interrogative in form, but Satan is not asking a question.

448.
moment
: consequence.

452.
Refusing
: “if I refuse.”

457.
intend at
: attend to.

461.
respite or deceive
: relieve or beguile, parallel to
cure or charm
(460).

467.
prevented
: forestalled.

468.
raised
: buoyed, uplifted (by Satan’s resolve); modifies
Others
(469).

478.
With awful reverence prone
: For Leonard, the phrase implies respect; for Fowler, groveling submission. The former reading suits the republican strain of Hell’s polity, the latter its affinity with Asian tyranny. Cp.
CD
2.13: “We nowhere read of obeisance being made to kings in any other way than by a low bow. Yet this same mark of respect was frequently used by one private individual to another” (
Yale
6:651); also
PL
4.958–60, 5.357–60.

483–85.
lest … zeal:
“to prevent bad men from boasting about actions that appear virtuous but are really motivated by fame or hidden ambition cloaked with enthusiasm.”

489.
while the north wind sleeps
: “what time the might of the north wind sleepeth” (Homer,
Il
. 5.524).

490.
louring element
: threatening (thus “lowering”) sky; the
element
is air.

491.
lantskip
: landscape (old spelling).

496–502.
“There is more amity among serpents than among men” (Juvenal,
Satire
15.159). According to Rusca, devils maintain harmony to tempt humanity more effectively (Hughes).

504.
enow
: archaic plural of “enough.”

511–13.
The imitation of God’s
state
(ceremonial pomp) is slavish in detail. As in the scriptural account of God on his throne (Isa. 6.1–7), Satan is surrounded by a host of
Seraphim
in a compact band (
globe;
cp.
PR
4.581). Recent editors (Fowler, Leonard) cite the Hebrew verb “to burn” as the source of
Seraphim
(hence
fiery Seraphim
). But the
Jewish Encyclopedia
cites the Hebrew noun for “fiery flying serpents” (Num. 21.6–9; Deut. 8:15).

513.
emblazonry
: heraldic devices decorating shields;
horrent:
bristling, dreadful.

517.
alchemy
: goldlike alloy, “alchemy gold”; here, a synecdoche for trumpets.

526.
entertain
: occupy. See 91n.

528–69.
Classical precedents abound for the diversions of the fallen angels. Cp. the Myrmidons’ exercises during Achilles’ absence from battle (
Il
. 2.774–79) or Horace’s list of pursuits favored by various men (
Odes
1.1). Milton’s specific choice of model is ironic; see Vergil’s inventory of the activities of the blessed dead in Elysium (
Aen
. 6.642–78).

528.
sublime
: aloft, uplifted; cp.
PR
4.542.

530.
Pythian fields
: Delphi; site of games instituted by Apollo after he slew the Python.

531.
shun the goal
: go tightly around the turning post, without touching it. Cp. “the turning post cleared with glowing wheel” (Horace,
Odes
1.1.4–5).

532.
fronted
: directly opposed, front to front.

533–34.
As when … sky:
Cloudy apparitions preceded the fall of Jerusalem, writes Josephus (
The Wars of the Jews
6.5.3), and atmospheric conditions at the time of Caesar’s assassination also warned of strife, according to many authors. Portentous weather was similarly observed “about the time of [the] Civil Wars” in England (Hume). Milton persistently likens fallen angels to ominous or deceptive meteorological phenomena, in line with his account of airy angelic substance and the rebels’ authority as “powers of air” (
PR
1.44).

535.
van
: front line of a battle formation.

536.
Prick forth
: spur forward;
couch:
lower into position for attack.

538.
welkin
: sky.

539.
Typhoean
: Identified with Etna’s volcanic power, Typhon was deemed father of the winds and is also an English word meaning
whirlwind
(l. 541). See 1.197–99.
fell:
of cruel or vicious character.

542–46.
As when … Euboic Sea:
Homeward bound after sacking
Oechalia
, Hercules asks
Lichas
to fetch a ceremonial robe. Hercules’ unwitting wife supplies an
envenomed
garment, which fastens to his flesh and burns unrelentingly. Uprooting trees in blind fury (
pines
is Milton’s detail), Hercules hurls Lichas into the
Euboic Sea
from atop Mount
Oeta
in southern Thessaly. Sophocles dramatizes the story in
Trachiniae
, and Seneca in
Hercules Oetaeus
. But Milton mainly follows Ovid (
Met
. 9.134–272,
Her
. 9).

552.
partial
: biased; “silent as to the corrupt motive of their conduct, and dwelt only on the sad consequences of it” (Cowper). The ensuing contrast with
harmony
suggests that “in parts” or “polyphonic” is not the intended sense.

554.
Suspended
: The
OED
cites this line to exemplify the sense “riveted the attention of,” and recent editors agree. The more likely meaning, however, is “to bring about the temporary cessation” (of a condition). The parenthesis implies this sense by interrupting the syntax and deferring the verb, as Newton observed. Cp. the effect on Satan of the Garden’s beauty (4.356, 9.462–66). Classical antecedents include Orpheus’ suspension of Hell (Vergil,
Georg
. 4.481–84) and the effect of Alcaeus’s music on the tormented Titans, “beguiled of their sufferings by the soothing sound” (Horace,
Odes
2.13.38).
took:
charmed, enchanted (cp. l. 556).

558–69.
Though well versed in classical philosophy and scholastic argument, Milton in later works includes passages critical of them (cp.
PR
4.286–321,
SA
300–306). God later makes his way through the mazy discourse of free will versus predestination (3.96–119); so does Milton in his theological treatise (
CD
1.3, 4).

564.
apathy
: impassivity; signature virtue of Stoicism, one that Milton did not endorse. Cp.
CD
2.10: “Sensibility to pain, and complaints or lamentations, are not inconsistent with true patience” (
Yale
6:740); also,
PR
4.300–18. Orthodox theology makes God the paragon of this virtue, denoted by the term
impassibility
. But Milton insists that we should deem God to be as passionate as Scripture says (see 369–70n).

568.
obdurèd
: hardened, especially in sinfulness; stubborn and unyielding, sometimes by divine intercession. See 6.785. Elledge cites
obdurèd
as an example of prolepsis, a figure in which the adjective describes a state yet to be produced by the action of the verb. If it is God who renders the rebels obdurate, however, the figure instead expresses a coincidence common in seventeenth-century theologies: the damned creature’s philosophical appropriation of God’s sentence; cp. 1.211–12, 240–41.